The Pagan Blessing.

New York : The Viking Press, 1979, 1979. Fine. 244 pp. ; [1st ed.] ; inscription on end page ; author's first novel ; ISBN: 0670209724 :; 9780670209729 LCCN: 79-12880 ; OCLC: 4933841 ; "...set in Amor Milagroso, a Spanish fishing town where ex-fisherman Benito finds two golden statues--a male a nd a female nude that lock together appropriately and seem to offer a supreme sense of joyous wellbeing and renewed youth. In fact, hitherto rather cool about sex, Benito and his wife Concepcion suddenly never had it so good, conjugal-wise. But the word gets around, and soon everyone is after Benito and the golden figures: the local count (a political enemy turned friend); some conniving art dealers with diverging sexual tastes; the local priest (only interested for scholarly reasons); an acquisitive Mayor; and a legendary gentlemanly bandit. There are chases on land and sea, assaults and dreadful threats, a cross-stitch of deals--and, at the last, Benito puts his life on the line to preserve the statues for the village, which expects tourists and pilgrims to flock on in. Noisy, with every possible cliche‚ of caricature and mock-patois endemic to the genre. "-Kirkus Reports ; FINE/VG